FC: VMyths' Rob Rosenberger on what will happen to his site now

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

Previous Politech message:
http://www.politechbot.com/p-04932.html

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From: "D McOwen" <dmcowen () bellsouth net>
To: "Rob Rosenberger" <Rob () Vmyths com>
Cc: "Declan" <declan () well com>, "Eric@Vmyths. Com" <eric () Vmyths com>
Subject: RE: VMyths enters realms of legend -- a farewell
Date: Tue, 8 Jul 2003 07:31:48 -0400

Rob, Declan,

Looks like the website is already taken down?

Any possibility of letting someone else continue to run the site until your
return?

I still have free time since my case ended because of the continued Economic
slump.

If I'm able to survive what I did and also get DSL service, there has to be
a way to save VMyths.

David McOwen

http://www.freemcowen.com

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From: "Rob Rosenberger" <Rob () Vmyths com>
To: "D McOwen" <dmcowen () bellsouth net>, <declan () well com>
Cc: <ncochrane () theage fairfax com au>
Subject: RE: VMyths enters realms of legend -- a farewell
Date: Tue, 8 Jul 2003 07:47:15 -0500

Hey, at least shake the drunk before you call him dead!  :-)  He might just
wake up, ya know.  Vmyths came back up a few minutes ago.

Monday-evening downtime happens at Vmyths on a routine basis.  Our weekly
newsletter will offend somebody who turns around and runs a DoS on us.  I'd
guess George C. Smith's announcement triggered it this time.  Our webmaster
will eventually notify me of the cause.

Unlike "celebrity DoS victim" Steve Gibson, we just don't care to make a big
issue of our attacks.  The world won't end if we get knocked offline for a
few hours.

As George explained in the announcement, our (skeleton) editorial operations
will shut down in my absence, but Mediaweave DID agree to keep Vmyths
online.  George admits we don't know what will happen when I finish my
military duty.  (sigh)

David asked a good question.  We'd love to hire someone (e.g. our
editor-at-large) to run Vmyths IF we could pay a salary.  Mary Landesman
(About.com) graciously offered her services for free, but I declined her
with George's blessing.  No offense to Mary, but we've got waaaaay too many
"hobby writers" out there who'll give their $0.02 about everything in
computer security.  Vmyths must *pay* people to focus on the hysteria
angle -- and we need to pay more than two cents for it, I can tell you that!

Hollywood has critics on its staff, yet we pay Roger Ebert an independent
salary to critique the movie/entertainment industrial complex.  The computer
security industry has critics on its staff, yet Vmyths exists to pay
independent salaries to people who critique the computer security industrial
complex.

Mark my words: the Internet will cry out for a "Roger Cybert" as the
computer security industry complex evolves.  If Vmyths can't pay that
salary, then we're simply ahead of our time.

Rob Rosenberger, editor
http://Vmyths.com

PS: I hope all will turn out for the best for you, David.




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